Before Sunday’s game, Broncos coach Sean Payton scrawled “48” on the grease board in the locker room and it was still there with a circle around it for all to see afterward.
It had been 48 days since the Broncos were embarrassed 31-10 at Kansas City in the Sept. 14 opener on Monday Night Football. So Payton wanted to emphasize that during a Knute Rockne-like pregame speech.
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It ended up working. The Broncos used an impressive goal-line stand at the end to secure a 28-24 comeback win over the Chiefs before 76,831 delirious fans at Empower Field to take over first place in the AFC West.
“Obviously a big win,” said Payton, who got a game ball for winning his 200th career NFL game, counting 10 playoff wins. “I’m proud of just the grit, hang in there. … When you have a game like (the one at Kansas City), you just feel rotten. You had to wait 48 days.”
The waiting was also excruciating for the Broncos after the Chiefs faced first-and-goal at the Denver 4 with 35 seconds left in the game. A Kenneth Walker 3-yard run got them to the 1. Patrick Mahomes then threw an incompletion, and Walker was stuffed by safety JL Skinner for no gain.
With it being fourth-and-goal with 4 seconds left, Mahomes appeared to throw a game-winning 1-yard touchdown pass to Rashee Rice. But the play had been whistled dead due to a false start penalty on tackle Jaylon Moore that Payton said made it a “crowd win” due to the noise in the stadium. On fourth-and-goal at the 6, outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper pressured Mahomes and defensive lineman Malcolm Roach sacked him to end the game.
Broncos quarterback Bo Nix called it “another crazy play by our defense” and an “incredible stand” by the unit.
Denver Broncos guard Quinn Meinerz (77) and Denver Broncos running back Jonah Coleman (20) do the mile high salute after Coleman scored the winning touchdown in the 4th quarter against the Chiefs. Broncos beat the Chiefs 28-24 at Empower Field at Mile High on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
“We got the false start and we kind of knew that they were going to throw,” Roach said. “Coop did a great job rushing off the edge and I just did my job. He stepped up right to me and I just had to get him down.”
Was Roach nervous in the final seconds?
“You’re still nervous,” he said. “You got Mahomes with the ball at the 1.”
Then again, the Broncos regularly win these close games. It was their 15th straight regular-season one-score win, tying an NFL record set by the Indianapolis Colts from 2008-09.
And it was yet another comeback win for Denver. The Broncos trailed 24-13 until a fourth-down 2-yard touchdown pass from Nix to Nate Adkins and a Nix 2-point pass to Jaylen Waddle cut the deficit to 24-21 with 8:55 left in the game.
Rookie running back Jonah Coleman then scored what proved to be the winning touchdown on a 5-yard run with 1:56 remaining. That came one play after Coleman had a 51-yard reception from Nix to start the two-play winning drive. The rookie finished with four catches for 63 yards and 11 carries for 41 yards, while starting running back J.K. Dobbins had just 13 yards on seven carries, with not a single one in the second half.
“It’s just the makeup of our team,” wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. said of the comeback. “It’s a lot of heart and a lot of trust in each other.”
It was a good time for the Broncos (6-2) to mount another big comeback. Had they lost, they would have dropped two games behind the Chiefs (5-2) in the loss column and been swept in the season series.
“We knew going into this game what was at stake and how big this game was going to be,” said guard Quinn Meinerz. “It’s not very often that this early in the season there’s a very massive game that can determine playoffs down the road.”
The Broncos trailed 17-13 at halftime and then were listless on offense in the third quarter, when they had three straight three-and-outs. After Mahomes threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Noah Gray with 1:38 left in the third quarter to put the Chiefs up 24-13, boos got even louder.
But Nix got in the fourth quarter, completing 5 of 6 passes for 85 yards, including the touchdown to Akins. He finished 20 of 32 for 22 yards and two touchdowns, his other one a 1-yard, fourth-down toss to Waddle with 1:15 left in the first half to cut the deficit to 14-13.
Mahomes was 30 of 41 for 321 yards and three touchdowns. Before the touchdown pass to Gray, he hit Rice with an 11-yard touchdown pass midway through the first quarter for a 7-3 lead and a 73-yard TD pass to running back Emmett Johnson midway through the second quarter for a 14-6 Kansas City lead. Johnson caught five passes for 128 yards.
“We were in a position to win the game, and a penalty happened and we didn’t get the touchdown,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said of the ending of the game. “We have to learn from it. That’s what you do.”
Denver Broncos cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine (31) celebrates as Kansas City Chiefs place kicker Harrison Butker in the 4th quarter against the Chiefs. Broncos beat the Chiefs 28-24 at Empower Field at Mile High on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
The Broncos got field goals of 39 and 45 yards in the first half from Wil Lutz. With his two extra points, Lutz set an NFL record with 113 straight made since the NFL in 2015 moved the length of the kick from 20 to 33 yards. Baltimore’s Justin Tucker, with 112 made from 2015-18, was the previous record holder.
Harrison Butker made a 45-yard field goal in the waning seconds of the first half to give the Chiefs a 17-13 halftime lead. But Butker missed a 54-yard attempt wide right with 2:31 left and Kansas City up 24-21.
That set the stage for Nix’s two-play winning touchdown drive.
“We had too many third downs (in the third quarter),” Nix said. “In the last quarter, we had productive first downs. … That’s a big divisional win for us against one of our toughest opponents in the division, one of our rivals. They played us really well again. We just responded this time. … I’m just tired. I’m just ready to go home and go to sleep. It was just a really big win.”
It was one Payton really wanted. When talking about writing “48” on the grease board, Payton said he was going to make a big production by doing a “Bob Knight” and throwing a chair against the board before he realized that nearby chairs were so heavy he could barely lift one.
“I just got angry and shouted without the chair (being thrown),” Payton said.
Regardless, his point was made. Outside linebacker Nik Bonitto called it “personal” making up for the ugly loss in September.
“In my opinion, this was the biggest game that we played for the sole fact of what they did to us on Monday night,” said cornerback Riley Moss. “We knew the importance. We didn’t know it was 48 days until (Payton) wrote it on the board. We all knew this week in practice to give it your all and finish the fight, and that’s what we did.”
Stay tuned to see if it might be another certain number of days before the Broncos and Chiefs meet again in the playoffs.